In 2018 Google launched Loon, a radical approach to bringing Internet access to rural, remote, and underserved areas using a system of balloons, carried by winds in the stratosphere. The goal was to bring connectivity to everyone on Earth, no matter how remote the location. The technology worked, but the business model didn’t.

Loon was shut down in 2021 but other efforts to tap into the stratosphere’s potential are beginning to take off.

Loon was an iteration of High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS): fixed wing aircraft, airships and balloons positioned above 20 kilometers altitude, in the stratosphere, for very long-duration flights. Recent advances in solar panel efficiency, battery energy density, lightweight composite materials, autonomous avionics and antennas, coupled with the expansion of frequency bands and new aviation standards, are making HAPS systems more viable, positioning them as an important layer in modern 3D telecommunication infrastructure, together with satellite constellations and terrestrial networks.
HAPS have been recognized in the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2024 report, co-published by the World Economic Forum and the scientific publisher Frontiers, as a transformative innovation poised to significantly influence society and address critical global issues. The Innovator interviewed one of the contributing researchers to the Emerging Technologies report and has conducted its own reporting as part of a collaboration between The Innovator and Frontiers. The series will aim to help executives get an early glimpse of scientific and technological developments and put them into context for business.

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Sympower enables commercial and industrial businesses, grid operators, battery project developers and owners, and other energy stakeholders. to participate in energy flexibility services. The Amsterdam-based scale-up helps corporate clients generate new revenue streams, reduce energy costs, and ultimately integrate more distributed renewable energy resources onto the grid. Customers include companies in the automotive, cement, chemicals, metallurgy, pulp and paper and agriculture sectors.
Sympower is a member of the European Innovation Council Scaling Club, a group that connects 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with peers, investors, corporate innovators, partners and other industry stakeholders to spur collective growth. (The Innovator’s Editor-in-Chief is a member of the EIC Scaling Club’s Council)

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Founded in 2018, Hidden Road offers clearing, prime brokerage and financing services across foreign exchange, digital assets, derivatives, swaps and fixed income. It currently clears more than $3 trillion annually across markets with over 300 institutional customers, including hedge funds.

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